All the Dirt on Gardening

Coleus Kong Lime Sprite is a new introduction from Ball Seed for 2015 and we're going to give them a try from seed. The seeds are expensive at about $2 apiece so we will be especially careful with them. Introduced at the California Spring Trials  the Kong Coleus are in a class all their own. You can click on this link to see the other new coleus introductions for 2015. Many coleus varieties are advertised as being sun tolerant but in our area that means morning or half day unless you can baby them. Karl Blume gets the credit for discovering Coleus in Java in 1853 and there have been many coleus fads over the years. I recall that in the 1970s in CA no home was without its obligatory container of coleus. Ray Rogers' 2007 book, "Coleus: Rainbow Foliage for Containers and Gardens", is my go-to reference. If you've ever grown coleus and noticed that it has square stems, you automatically know that it is some member of the mint family. Rogers points out that ...

Planting seeds directly into our garden is a waste of time because we live on a steep enough hill that they just wash away during watering and before germinating. So, planting in sterile potting mix and controlling their environment until they emerge works best. Here's how I planted the Fennel seeds that arrived a few days ago Clean pots were filled with sterile potting mix and put into a bottom watering tray. They were watered from the top to settle the soil. Paper towel was used to pre-soak the seeds and the plumped seeds were sprinkled over the soil surface Sterile seed starting mix was used on top of the seeds to the recommended depth of 1/4 inch and the tray was tagged. We use a label maker and put the labels on slices of mini-blind. Since I planted two varieties, the second type was planted in round pots so when the inevitable happens and the tags become dislodged, I'll be better able to guess which is which. Fennel seedlings emerge 5 d...

Seedlings in strawberry boxes Starting seeds to grow your own transplants is fun. Sterile, well-drained planting mix, the correct temperature and light will help you be successful, but things come up, our attention gets diverted, and our efforts have mixed results.  For example, I found these Raab seeds left over from a previous year and thought the germination rate would be so low that I could put a lot of them in the container.  spindly seedlings The light was insufficient, they were too wet and crowded.   Then, it was too cold to go outside much and we were super busy and then the seeds popped roots and leaves and well, the photo tells you everything. Many experienced gardeners say to pitch them out and start again but I put them under lights to see if they would like to keep growing.  After all, at this time of year, we're mostly puttering while waiting for better weather. seedlings under lights